Good morning. Where is the week going? It’s already Thursday and I am SO FAR BEHIND.
We’ve been talking a lot lately about food and drink. There seem to be a disproportionate number of national days related to different products, which I guess makes sense, since this is all one gigantic marketing scheme.
I was trolling the interwebs for ideas about what to focus on today, and discovered that a number of interesting and noteworthy events occurred on this day in history. So in the interest of shaking things up a bit, let’s do a brief stroll through time, shall we?
Let’s start with 1876. On this day in that year, the American novelist Jack London was born in San Francisco, CA. You might recognize his name from two iconic books you probably read one or both of in high school: The Call of the Wild and White Fang.
If you have read the aforementioned books, then you might be surprised to know that London quit school at the age of 14 and set out to seek his fortune – and adventure – in the world. He was a hobo for a time, and traveled as far as Japan (not all by rail, of course). He was a militant socialist and largely self-taught, though he did do a stint at UC Berkeley before quitting to join the Klondike Gold Rush.
London did not make a fortune in gold, and instead decided to try his hand at being a writer – not necessarily a surefire way to make money, though perhaps with better odds than panning for ore.
He eventually wrote 50 books – both fiction and nonfiction – over a period of 17 years, and though he was the highest paid US author at the time, he never quite managed to make enough money to support his lifestyle. (Also, some of his books were ghost written, or at least edited by, his second wife, “Clara” Charmian Kittredge).
He ended up building a big abode he dubbed “Wolf House” (for obvious reasons), though it was never finished due to a devastating fire that may or may not have been arson. London died in 1926. The site of his unfinished home is now a park.
Moving on to 1932. On this day in that year, Hattie Ophelia Caraway became the first woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate. She initially inherited her Arkansas seat when its owner – her husband, Thaddeus H. Caraway – died in 1931 and she was appointed to the job by the governor, becoming the second woman to be SEATED in the upper house.
(Side note: Apparently, Thaddeus Caraway had been elected with a significant assist from his wife, who worked on his campaign and often spoke on his behalf).
She then ran in a special election to fill the last remaining months of her husband’s term, and won. Her first observation upon entering the chamber was reportedly: “The windows need washing.”
And then stood for election to a full term, and won again. She successfully ran for a second term, but lost her bid for a third. While in the Senate, Caraway earned the distinction of being the first woman to preside over a session and also the first to serve as a committee chair.
Two other births of note occurred on this day – conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh (born in 1951, died in 2021) and Amazon founder and uber-rich guy Jeff Bezos (born in 1964 and still among the living).
These are, of course, both notable, which is why I’ve briefly mentioned them, but more pertinent to me is the fact that on this day in 1966, the live-action TV series Batman premiered on ABC, starring Adam West as the Caped Crusader and Burt Ward as Robin.
The series was enormously popular and pure camp, especially compared to the dark and brooding and graphically violent Batman movies of today. I used to watch it as a kid, and was hugely entertained. I maybe had a crush on Batman – or was it Robin? Anyway, they don’t make shows like they used to.
Bam! Pow!
Just not a great day is in store for us, weather-wise. There will be snow in the morning, transitioning to rain in the afternoon. Temperatures will be in the low 40s. It will be a good day to stay inside and watch reruns.
In the headlines…
Aides to President Joe Biden have discovered at least one additional batch of classified documents in a location separate from the Washington office he used after leaving the Obama administration, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The revelation is sure to intensify Republican attacks on the president, who has called former President Donald Trump irresponsible for hoarding sensitive documents at his estate in Florida.
Thousands of flights across the U.S. were canceled or delayed after a government system that offers safety and other information to pilots broke down, stranding some planes on the ground for hours.
The White House said there was no evidence that a cyberattack triggered the outage, which upended travel plans for millions of passengers. President Joe Biden said he directed the Department of Transportation to investigate.
Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are under intense political pressure to get to the bottom of an issue at the FAA that grounded flights, and also to prevent further snares in Americans’ air travel.
As of 5 p.m. yesterday, at least 9,207 flights within, into or from the US have been delayed and 1,309 were canceled, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware.
Airlines and the FAA traded blame over the cause of mass flight delays and cancellations this summer, and carriers have lamented that the FAA has gone eight months without a Senate-confirmed administrator.
The FAA is operating without a permanent leader, because Biden’s nominee to head the organization, Phillip Washington, hasn’t even received a confirmation hearing – despite Democrats being in charge of the Senate.
Biden called on lawmakers of both parties to come together to pass legislation to hold big technology and social-media companies accountable, accusing some in the industry of exploiting users’ personal data and endangering children.
In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Biden said congressional Democrats and Republicans should set aside their differences and work on strong bipartisan legislation to keep major technology companies in check — without calling any businesses out by name.
“We need bipartisan action from Congress to hold Big Tech accountable,” Biden wrote. “We’ve heard a lot of talk about creating committees. It’s time to walk the walk and get something done.”
Democrats and some centrist Republicans are in early, informal conversations about dusting off a rarely used parliamentary procedure that could force a vote to raise the nation’s borrowing limit, ahead of a showdown over government spending.
Nassau County Republican officials called on disgraced Republican Rep. George Santos to immediately resign from Congress, just four days after being sworn into office.
“He has no place in the Nassau County Republican Committee, nor should he serve in public service,” Nassau County Republican Committee Chair Joseph Cairo said of Santos.
Rep. Nick Langworthy, the head of the New York Republican Party who was just elected to represent a Buffalo-area district in Congress, said he agreed with Cairo that “it would be in the best interest of the taxpayers to have new leadership.”
At least three New York Republicans who received political contributions from Santos are returning the cash, with a fourth donating the money, but a local congressman was mum on what he would do with the contribution his campaign received.
Two years before his successful run for Congress, Santos gave Long Island Republican officials a résumé that reads like a detailed road map of his lies.
Santos defiantly refused to step down despite a new call from some fellow Republicans for his ouster over unending lies about his background, education and finances.
Gov. Kathy Hochul would have 10 days to call a special election to replace Santos, which would have to be held between 70 to 80 days from the date of that proclamation — if Santos resigns this year, during the first session of a Congress.
Biden accompanied his wife, Jill, as she underwent a Mohs surgery at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., to remove a skin lesion above her right eye.
“The procedure confirmed the small lesion was basal cell carcinoma,” White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor said. “All cancerous tissue was successfully removed, and the margins were clear of any residual skin cancer cells.”
O’Connor said that “as anticipated,” Biden “is experiencing some facial swelling and bruising” after the outpatient procedure “but is in good spirits and is feeling well.” She returned to the White House after the procedure.
House Republicans opened their long-promised investigation into Biden and his family, wielding the power of their new majority to demand information from the Treasury Department and former Twitter executives as they laid the groundwork for public hearings.
Federal prosecutors could decide soon whether to indict Hunter Biden on tax and gun charges, and he faces a fresh round of hostile congressional hearings. But a close look shows his story differs in important ways from the GOP-promoted narrative.
Republicans used their new power in the House to push through legislation that could subject doctors who perform abortions to criminal penalties, underscoring their opposition to abortion rights even as they stopped short of trying to ban the procedure.
The White House and a key independent regulator are pushing back on the idea of a ban on new gas stoves as tensions over the restrictions boil over in Washington.
“I am not looking to ban gas stoves and the CPSC has no proceeding to do so,” Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman Alexander Hoehn-Saric said in a statement.
The Biden administration decided that the COVID-19 public health emergency will be extended for another 90 days, maintaining a long set of Trump-era allowances and programs affecting much of U.S. health care.
US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra renewed the declaration on its expiration date – an expected step because officials have said they will provide 60 days’ notice if they do not plan to renew the emergency, and had not done so.
But the administration is likely to face pressure to lift the emergency from newly ascendant House Republicans, who have already announced investigations into the U.S. COVID response.
WHO officials are recommending that COVID-19 mitigation methods such as masking on planes be reemphasized for regions such as North America and Europe in response to the spread of the XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant.
COVID-19 remained the leading cause of law enforcement deaths in 2022 despite the number attributed to the virus dramatically declining.
The majority of long Covid symptoms resolve within the first year after infection for people with mild cases of Covid-19, according to a large study conducted in Israel.
New York State could close federal rent relief applications as early as Sunday and isn’t specifying which communities, if any, will be cut off.
New York can for now continue to enforce a sweeping new law that bans guns from “sensitive places” including schools, playgrounds and Times Square, the Supreme Court said, allowing the law to be in force while a lawsuit over it plays out.
The court’s brief, unsigned order gave no reasons, which is typical when the justices act on emergency applications. Challenges to the new law are pending before the federal appeals court in New York.
When it comes to affordable housing, “Beating back local power brokers — those most committed to the NIMBY credo — may be the toughest thing Hochul ever does.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul has not given up on her nomination of Hector LaSalle to lead the state Court of Appeals, but the Legislature could refuse to approve him.
Hochul made it clear she will continue to back LaSalle through his Senate confirmation hearing to take place next week.
Changing New York’s bail law to end the “least restrictive” standard for serious charges and repeat offenders would offer judges a clearer idea of how to follow the measure, Hochul said.
Hochul wants to link New York’s minimum wage with the rate of inflation, a change that could trigger automatic increases to a wage floor that has remained stagnant in recent years.
Hochul’s proposal includes an “off ramp” to cap the annual minimum wage hike, which progressives don’t support.
The Cannabis Association of New York also known as CANY, released a statement saying it was both “disappointing” and “surprising” Hochul did not mention cannabis in her State of the State address.
Hochul announced a “cap and invest” plan to put an economy-wide price on carbon, which, if adopted, could mark one of the most sweeping plans in the country to ditch fossil fuels.
Hochul is calling for “modest” yearly increases for the state’s public colleges and universities, a move that is opposed by the organization that represents students.
Schools in New York could receive yet another major increase in direct funding this year as Hochul signals she wants to increase spending by $2.7 billion in the coming state budget.
A Manhattan judge ordered the Adams administration to immediately stop charging retired city workers $15 co-pays for doctors’ visits.
Two companies co-founded by Frank Carone, Mayor Eric Adams’ recently departed chief of staff, are being sued by two of the city’s largest real estate firms for more than $1.1 million in unpaid rent and other expenses.
Adams is under fire for cutting funding for libraries — a critical lifeline for people who do not have internet access at home or who need after-school tutoring and English language instruction.
A man who has operated at least four Brooklyn education companies billed the government for more than $1 million in child care services that he never provided, cashing in on programs meant to aid low-income families, according to a federal indictment.
A a group of high-ranking state lawmakers said it appeared that Yeshiva University might have misrepresented itself as a secular institution on at least two occasions in order to qualify for more than $230 million in public funds.
A federal labor official rejected Amazon’s attempt to overturn a union victory at a warehouse on Staten Island, removing a key obstacle to contract negotiations between the union and the company.
Cornele Overstreet, a regional director with the National Labor Relations Board who has overseen the case, ruled that Amazon hadn’t provided sufficient evidence to overturn the election results, according to an NLRB spokeswoman.
The nurses strike in New York City continued for the third day yesterday. For people who need care and for the striking nurses not getting paid, time is of the essence.
Nurses have remained on the picket lines this week at Mount Sinai Hospital and Montefiore Medical Center, which have been less full but still tumultuous as they operate with skeletal staffs.
There are hundreds of unfilled nursing positions at the two striking hospitals. Many nurses, stretched thin by the COVID-19 pandemic, have left their jobs for more lucrative travel nursing roles or quit the profession altogether.
The family of a man who hanged himself inside a Manhattan holding cell is suing the city in a new wrongful-death lawsuit after a correction officer was found to have been paces away from the detainee while he put a drawstring around his neck.
NYC trails only the Windy City as the nation’s bed bug capital. Philadelphia, which finished second in 2022, dropped to number three in Orkin’s annual rankings.
The U.S. Department of Justice is examining two county officials’ use of federal asset forfeiture funds. A federal inquiry into the offices of Albany County DA David Soares and Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple has been underway since late November.
Jason T. Schofield, Rensselaer County’s former GOP elections commissioner, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of voter fraud charges, admitting he fraudulently filed absentee ballots in 2021 using the personal information of at least eight voters without permission.
Horror writer Stephen King offered a tongue-in-cheek apology to the city of Utica after comparing speakership of the U.S. House of Representatives to a stay in the city.
Paul Caiano has been named WNYT’s chief meteorologist following the departure of veteran forecaster Bob Kovachick. Kovachick, who held the chief position most recently at the NBC affiliate, retired in October 2022 after a 34-year career.
Officials are warning the public about dangerous conditions after a man fell through a layer of thin ice on Glen Lake and had to be rescued.
Bills safety Damar Hamlin was released from a Buffalo hospital yesterday, more than a week after he went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated during a game at Cincinnati, after his doctors said they completed a series of tests.
“We have completed a series of tests and evaluations, and in consultation with the team physicians, we are confident that Damar can be safely discharged to continue his rehabilitation at home and with the Bills.”
Prince Harry’s memoir, “Spare,” has become a record-breaking success, with first-day sales that exceed some of publishing’s biggest hits, including blockbusters by Barack and Michelle Obama.
The memoir sold more than 1.4 million copies in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. on its first day, a performance that publisher Penguin Random House said was the largest first-day sales total for any nonfiction book it ever published.
